The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1887-03-23

may be replaced by twelve or more
eggs, according to the size of the
hen. About the nineteenth day
after setting the eggs they should |
sprinkled with lukewarm water,
which has a tendency to soften the
inner skin of the egg, giving the
chicks a better chance to clear them
selves.
Most farmers will find the keep
ing of a few fowls a source of profit,
and the number and kind of poultry
to be kept must depend upon cir
cumstances. If small fruits + made
a speciality there will be little chance
for fowls except in confinement, and
this may be n of the exceptions
under which even a small number
prove too many. On farms devoted
to grain raising, with a mixed sys-
tenn of husbandry, forty or fifty
fowls, with the increase every year
needed to keep this number good
with fresh stock, will be about as
many as can we'll be kept in one
body. There will be towards fall one
hundred or more hens and chickens,
including cockerels, and out of these
forty GRITTY showing the best points
will do to keep over, and often yield
greater profit on the average farm
than a larger number.
PREPARING GROUND O ONIONS.
Onions are a crop that may be
planted year after year on the same
land with good c But where
their culture is to be commenced
some preparation in previous heavy
manuring and cultivation in a hoed
crop is necessary. Manure clover
sod heavily this spring, plant with
potatoes and cultivate thoroughly to
keep down the weeds, and it will be
in excellent condition for onions a
year hence. Land for onions should
always be fall plowed. 1t will then
have a natural rich seed bed on the
surface in the spring, and the seed
may be put in with very light cult
walton of the soil. This will make a
shallow but mellow seed bed, with a
hard stratum beneath to induce bot
toming. With deep blowing in spring
it is more difficult to make a good
seed bed, and the result of having
too deep soil is to make more soul
lions than onions Of the proper shape.
FEEDING CATTLE.
J. P. Little, of Amesbury, Mass,
received the first premium on fat
cattle at the last show of the Essex
Agricultural Society for a PAIR Of
Devon oxen, six years old, which
weighed 1880 pounds. He also re-
ceived a second premium on a pair
of Herefords, five years old, which
weighed 1850 pounds. According
to Mr. Little's statement, the Devon
cattle at fair time had been owned
by him fifteen months, the Herefords
between elven and twelve months.
For the first four months the DevOns
did all the OK work on the farm.
Subsequent to that time the four did
the OK work on the farm, drawing
in eighty tons of hay each year and
hosting it with a fork on to the
mows. Besides the work on the
farm, they did considerable outside
teaming, drawing wood: salt, hay,
manure from the village, etc. Dur
ing the month previous to the fair
they worked, retaining a meadow,
pulling trees, blowing, etc. Since
Mr.. Little owned them they have
not been to pasture. He began in
the early autumn Of 1885 to feed on
fodder corn; fed with that nearly all
the time, with little hay all winter.
Then began feeding with different
kinds Of hay, with two quarts Of
meal per day each, until the first Of
March, when he commenced four
quarts per day until fair time. He
gave them clear corn meal dry twice
a day, two quarts at night and two
quarts in the morning. They have,
always had the best of care. They
were partly fed with green fodder
corn during the fall, the same as the
previous year. Mr.. Little thinks
that feeding different kinds of hay
is better than to confne cattle to
one kind of hay. The cattle COM
sumed some salt hay every day with
an evident relish.